BERLIN, MD - Tyler Mailloux has appealed to Maryland’s highest court to reverse a previous court decision to return his trial in the hit-and-run death of Gavin Knupp to Circuit Court.
Mailloux’s trial in the death of Knupp was initially dismissed in August of 2023, with the Circuit Court Judge ruling the case should have been filed in District Court as it involved certain traffic charges. In March of this year, an Appellate Court reversed that decision, sending the trial back to Circuit Court where it began.
In the latest development in the series of legal appeals and proceedings, Mailloux is now asking the Maryland Supreme Court to reverse the appellate court’s decision.
WBOC has obtained Maryland prosecutors’ response to Mailloux’s petition to the Maryland Supreme Court, with the State arguing the petition should be denied.
According to prosecutors, Mailloux requests a review of the appellate court’s decision citing the court had not previously addressed the issue of jurisdiction of traffic charges. Prosecutors acknowledge the court had not addressed them before, but argue that “not every issue of first impression needs a second look.”
“Given that the reported opinion of the Appellate Court is clearly correct, further review of this issue is unnecessary,” the State says in their filed response to the Maryland Supreme Court.
The State goes on to argue once again that all charges were properly filed in circuit court and that the circuit court judge was mistaken to dismiss the charges against Mailloux.
Whether the Supreme Court will hear Mailloux’s appeal remains to be seen. A clerk with the Supreme Court of Maryland told WBOC Tuesday that Mailloux’s appeal is currently pending before the court, and no formal hearing has yet been scheduled.
Gavin Knupp, of Ocean Pines, was 14 when he was killed in a July 2022 hit-and-run crash on Grays Corner Rd.